Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
Patricia Maganu
30 October 2009
Francistown — A Zimbabwean national, who is on trial for defiling a 15-year-old girl, said that he wanted to understand the difference between rape and defilement. He said this when cross-examining the investigation officer on October 28.
Ngoni Arnold, 30, said he wanted to understand from the investigation officer if he (Arnold) raped the complainant or had an affair with her.
"You are telling the court that I had a love affair with the complainant while she said that I raped her; so have I been charged with rape or defilement?" he asked.
The alleged crime happened in Maipafela location in Francistown around August 8 last year.
He said that after the investigation officer, Detective Sub-Inspector Tibone Batisane, had said that the accused had an affair with the 15-year-old.
"When she was in court she told the court that I raped her and you are saying that I had an affair with her; so which one of you is not telling the truth?" he said.
He said that during cross examination he asked the complainant if he had ever had an affair with her or even proposed love to her but she said no and said that he had raped her. Arnold told the court that he never had an affair with the girl but did not say whether he raped her or not. Witnesses also say that the girl wrote a love letter to the accused that was confiscated by his wife. The accused said it was not a love letter.
"She did write a letter but she was writing to me and my wife saying that she was pregnant and wanted to terminate the pregnancy before her father got back from Zimbabwe," he said. When asked to produce the letter he said that his wife tore it up.
Ngoni told the court that the girl was left in their care by her father when he returned to Zimbabwe.
However, the evidence before court is that the accused allegedly sexually abused the child when her father was in Zimbabwe.
Batisane said that the police slapped the accused with an alternative charge since the matter was reported after a long time.
"The accused actually raped the complainant but because the matter was reported late we had to go with an alternative charge," he said.
He further said that the issue was not whether the two had an affair, rather that he had sexual intercourse with a minor.
He further told the court that from investigations he found out that the accused had been sexually abusing the teenager.
"She told the police that the accused found her in the bathroom taking a bath so she could go to school when he started to rape her," he told the court.
He further said that from investigations it was established that the accused had sexually abused the girl on three occasions.
The case continues on November 11. Presiding over the case is senior magistrate Pride Rushike.
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